A round of cheers went up in D.C. on Wednesday as a construction excavator bucket — guided by D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray himself — ripped into the cinder block wall of a boarded up Shoe City.

More than 20 years in the making, the start of demolition at Skyland Shopping Center marked a milestone in D.C.’s long-unfulfilled promise to redevelop the blighted Southeast strip mall, and many city officials hope it is the beginning of a renaissance for an area long overlooked by retailers.